Roland Harte



Name: Roland Harte

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: Bayview Secondary School

Hobbies and Interests: Camping, Rock Climbing, Survivalist Training, Military

Appearance: Roland is a rather imposing individual standing around 6’5” and weighing in at around 210 pounds, most of which could be considered muscle mass.

Roland has tangled and somewhat greasy black hair which he pushes back behind his ears and almost never brushes. Roland often finds himself readjusting his hair, pushing strands back behind his ears. His hair is rather long, coming down to the back of his neck. Roland is momentarily keeping his hair at a longer length then one would expect of a military oriented individual. He intends to cut it the day he properly joins the army. He wears a pair of thin rimmed glasses which almost constantly fall lower on his nose. Roland finds himself constantly pushing up his glasses in order to see correctly. He has a soul patch which he grew unintentionally, but has kept due to a fondness for it. He has an intentionally stubble covered face and a pair or rather unremarkable brown eyes.

Biography: Roland hails from a rather military oriented family, his father serving a term overseas, his uncle a former marine. The only child of Doug and Sharon Harte, his parents went through a rather messy divorce during his youth, which unfortunately Roland bore witness to. The divorce was mostly over relationship issues and was instigated by Roland’s father; his Mother was somewhat dependent upon Doug and became heartbroken over the separation. Roland’s Father received minimal custody at first, but Roland’s Mother was not the most careful parent. Not exactly wanting to let go of the marriage, Sharon became despondent and uncaring for her child as she pursued Roland’s father seeking to rekindle the relationship. As Doug denied her time and time again, this eventually escalated into loathing him for shutting her out of his life. Roland as a child found himself an unwilling outlet for his Mother’s hatred.

As his Mothers abuse grew physical, Roland’s Father alerted child services. After a lengthy court case, Roland was put into the full custody of his Father. Clinically depressed, Sharon left the country and has not made contact with the Harte family since. Roland’s father and extended family from an early age looked to instill Roland with a strong moral code and raise a strong son. Roland’s father despised his divorced wife; when he would speak to Roland of her he would always remind him of her weaknesses and how it led her to cause harm to their family.

Roland was never a slouch in the strength department, and soon found himself enrolled in several sports at his Fathers’ insistence. While initially disliking these outdoor activities, Roland eventually became fond of them, especially camping with his Father and more extreme sport events such as rock climbing with which he could test his endurance. Roland’s greatest accomplishment in his mind is spending a week in the deep woods with his father, using survival skills to survive as opposed to a more relaxed camping experience some kids would be used to. Roland was urged into Cadets by his Father, and is set to join the Army upon graduating High School. Due to the rigorous training, Roland is extremely physically well off. While he doesn’t have excessive fire-arm training, he does know how to operate weapons reasonably well. Roland has fired several handguns at the shooting range, although he’s not yet fired anything larger than a shotgun and nothing military grade or fully automatic. Roland is better with the theory of how to operate and care for a weapon at present then he is with how to fire one.

Roland was from an early age exposed to his Father’s rather conservative political viewpoints. Filled with former Serviceman and with a strong Catholic background, Roland’s entire family takes part in “Support the Troops” activities every year. It would be suicide for anyone to even attempt to discuss politics in the Harte household from a leftist point of view. Roland’s Father was a demanding parent and expected much from his child, at least a B in every course, a strict curfew, absolutely no drug use or law breaking of any time. Over time, Roland found himself shaped into what his Father wanted, and now he see’s no problems fulfilling all these goals without any extra pressure from his Father.

Due to this, Roland is rather uncomfortable around for lack of a better word, “Unique” individuals. Those that partake in drugs and social activism and those who are of a different faith and sexuality Roland feels uncomfortable around. Roland isn’t dismissive of their lifestyles or needlessly hate on them due to his Christian upbringing, but he does look down upon those who partake in these activities. Still, Roland feels it isn’t his place to say anything unless they confront him with it first. Even then, Roland would still be rather close-minded and would most likely refuse to change his worldview.

Roland is a rather single minded individual; once he latches onto an assignment he finishes it one way or another. He has his career all mapped out at present, with little to nothing left to chance. Roland does enjoy having a good time, but he’s a very no nonsense kind of person. Eccentric individuals annoy him, as do those who don’t bother to plan things and wing it instead.

Roland is a rather “End justifies the Means” type of person when it comes to those who question his career decisions. Roland can be a rather compassionate person when it comes down to it, and he’s a real team player, taking joy in building others confidence up. Although Roland is not a team-sports oriented individual, (Roland prefers the more extreme variety) he enjoys working with others making him a sought after teammate during Gym class. Often Roland finds himself taking on the role of Team Captain.

Roland initially comes off as a rather nice kid, but when it comes to romance he falls flat. Equally due to his no nonsense attitude and annoyance at the slightest idiosyncratic behavior, all his relationships have ended in disaster. Nearly every girl Roland has dated has in one way or another spread the word that he’s a jerk when it comes to romance. As such he is rather infamous in the more girl-intense cliques as someone to avoid romantically. Roland doesn’t exactly mind this; he doesn’t care much about what others think of him.

Advantages: Roland is a survivalist and was planning to join the military prior to SotF. Because of this, Roland has great endurance, strength and know how when it comes to surviving outdoors for long periods of time. He’s not particularly skilled, but knows his way around fire arms. His no nonsense attitude and strict moral upbringing makes him a fantastic leader who is able to direct his team in a straightforward manner.

Disadvantages: Roland isn’t very comfortable around more eccentric individuals to the point where he tries to avoid them all together. While Roland is a good leader, he can grow angry when his team doesn’t follow his instructions or messes up. Roland is a no nonsense kind of guy with a close minded worldview. When anyone expresses an opinion extremely deviating from his, he blocks out. Roland grows irate with slackers and those who chose to “Wing it” rather than plan ahead. Roland can be rather cold and insistent upon order when things get too out of hand, even when everyone else is enjoying themselves. Roland would most likely inform authorities if he saw any sign of lawbreaking, something that has made his relationships with the more party-centric members of the school shaky. He’s a rather “End justifies the Means” kind of kid which puts some people off. He is terrible with relationships and is rather infamous with the girls of Bayview for being a horrible and rather boring date; as such girls tend to avoid him due to this reputation.

Designated Number: Male student no. 137

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Designated Weapon: Kris

Conclusion: Hmm... I see great potential here. If he snaps at the right time, he could make it. I'm not sure, but I can see him making it very far indeed. Unless some resentful girl shoots him in the back first. That would be quite a pitty.

The above biography is as written by Little Boy No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.

Evaluations
Handled by: Little Boy

Kills: Robert Lerger (credited solely to Alex Rasputin however)

Killed By: Naoko Raidon

Collected Weapons: Kris (assigned weapon)

Allies: Isabel Guerra, Dave Morrison, Kitty Gittschall

Enemies: Meredith Hemmings, Robert Lerger, Naoko Raidon, Alex Rasputin

Mid-game Evaluation: Roland started his game in the Mirror Maze, where he quickly awoke to the sound of Meredith Hemmings crying. Advancing with his weapon in hand, Roland came across Isabel Guerra, another resident of the maze. Roland shouted for her to lower her weapon, which Roland mistakenly took as a gun or knife. While Roland contemplated killing Isabel at this point, a combination of his hesitation and morals allowed Isabel the chance to smash him in the head with trumpet and knock him down long enough to escape. Realizing the girl had posed no threat to him, Roland gave chase trying to explain his actions. He soon enough stumbled upon Isabel along with Dave Morrison, who was confronting Meredith Hemmings. Meredith, irrationally believing Roland was planning to kill Dave, rushed him, in a bid to knock him down and allow the others to escape. Her sudden action, however, was taken as a threat to Roland by Dave and Isabel, and Roland was able to incapacitate her rather quickly by throwing her into a mirror. Roland then spoke to Dave and Isabel, convincing them that he wasn't a threat to them, and that he was out to escape. They decided to group up, and exited to the Fun Fair, Roland leading the way.

At the Fair, Roland, Dave and Isabel observed Gracie Wainright in a standoff with Kitty Gittschall and Kyle Portman. Gracie, holding Anna Chase hostage, attempted to exit with Anna's supplies. Roland prepared to attack Gracie and free Anna, but was tackled to the floor by Dave, who was trying to avoid being seen. Roland was infuriated by this turn of events, and being unable to rescue Anna, smacking Dave in the nose during the struggle and causing a nose bleed. While this occured, Alex Rasputin entered the area attacking Kitty from behind. Kitty in a panic let loose a smoke bomb, but was eventually hit and knocked unconcious by Alex. Roland, seeing this new situation entered the smoke cloud, just as Robert Lerger emerged from the forest in a bid to protect Kitty. However, Roland misinterpreted his intent and sneaking up behind Robert, stabbed him in the back of the neck. This allowed Alex to steal Robert's weapon (A chainsaw) and violently eviscerate Robert right in front of Roland. The violent demise of Robert left Roland shellshocked for a moment, and Alex ran away in fear. Dave and Isabel, having seen Roland's attack misinterpretted it as cold-blooded murder and left the faire, abandoning Roland. After taking some time to compose himself, Roland found the injured Kitty nearby. Taking it upon himself to help her, Roland assisted Kitty out of the Faire at the end of the first day, dragging along with him the corpse of Robert Lerger, whom he had decided to give a decent burial. Arriving at the cell phone tower with a passed out Kitty, Roland set about digging a shallow grave for Robert. Despite the fact that this took him most of the night, Roland succeeded in his task, saying a brief prayer for Robert and asking God to help him in ending Danya's game. Passing out shortly after the task was completed, Roland failed to finish burying Robert, only dumping him in the grave. Awakening in the morning Roland was surprised and horrified to find that a scavenging Racoon had partially eaten Robert in the night. After scaring the animal off, Roland finished burying Robert, although he became violently sick while doing so.

While Roland was finishing off the grave, Kitty awoke. Although initially scared of the boy, given the events back at the fair, Kitty did not initially flee. Roland, exhausted from his night spent digging Robert's grave fell asleep under a nearby tree, telling Kitty to go wash his weapon and clean up while he slept.

After awakening, Roland mentally chastised himself for his stupidity of falling asleep unarmed, and giving Kitty his weapon. However after further exploring the cell phone tower, Kitty returned to Roland and the pair set off together. Although still uneasy about Roland, given his murder and subsequent burial of Robert, Kitty decided to stick with Roland for the time being. Sitting down to eat, the two had their first real conversation, where Roland explained his motivation and drive to both kill Danya and escape the game. His intensity and willingness to kill scared Kitty, and the pair seemed on the brink of arguing until Jacquard Broughten stumbled upon the scene. Jackie, covered in the blood from her previous kill, (Maria Santiago) asking for assistance. Roland and Kitty took a hard stance however, refusing to assist her if she would not tell them exactly what had occurred. Realizing that they would rather kill then help her, Jackie stumbled away, leaving Roland and Kitty. After this interruption, the pair decided to pack up and keep on the move.

Some time later, Roland and Kitty stumbled upon The Ranger Station. Noticing the corpse of Ethan Kent outside, Roland decided to scope out the immidiate area on his own before calling Kitty in. Arriving at Ethan's body, Roland was sad to see his friend dead. Checking the note on his chest, Roland realized that inside The Ranger Station, an escape attempt was underway. Entering the Station, Roland was surprised to find Isabel and Dave, his old companions hard at work with Feo Smith, Winnie Clark, Helen Wilson and Charlotte Duclare on formulating a plan to escape the Island. Roland called in Kitty, and after communicating the fact that they were no threat, the two joined the escape attempt. Not long after their arrival, Charlie departed, abandoning the escape group. After being briefed on the specifics, Isabel led Dave, Winnie, Helen and Kitty out of the Station, leaving Feo and Roland at the computers to verify the name of the Island, and trash their equipment.

After learning the name of the Island, Roland and Feo destroyed their equipment and fled the Ranger Station. However, Feo lagged behind Roland and could not make it out of the area when it was declared a danger zone. Feo's collar was exploded, and she died just outside the station, near Ethan's corpse. Roland witnessing this was saddened, but was forced to hurry on to the rendevous point in the swamp to meet with the rest of the group.

Arriving to find all the other members of the group assembled, Roland told the others the bad news of Feo's demise. Isabel formulated a plan to send the coordinates of the Island out via Morse Code. Giving her assigned weapon (the trumpet) to Roland, the group decided to play a "Game", following Roland's lead, they'd send out the coordinates via trumpet. This was momentarily interrupted by the arrival of the badly wounded Leila Langford, her arm broken. Despite this, the group succeeded in sending out the coordinates.

After this was completed, things took a turn for the worse. Naoko Raidon, Julian Avery and Mizore Soryu arrived on the scene. Seeing one of the biggest players on the island walking in on his group, Roland went for his knife. Raidon opened fire, causing the group to scatter. Raidon was momentarily deterred by Mizore tripping in an attempt to stop him from opening fire and killing the group.

Scattering, Roland managed to hook up with both Kitty and Isabel. After telling Isabel his plan to lead Raidon off into the swamp, Roland took off, borrowing one of Kitty's assigned weapons, a smoke bomb.

Leading Raidon on a chase through the swamp, Roland eventually doubled back, sneaking up on the boy from behind. Roland despite only being armed with a knife was able to successfull wound Raidon, blinding him with a smoke bomb then striking him in the shoulder with his blade. The fight nearly won, Roland closed in to kill Raidon. Unfortunately, Raidon was armed with more then a gun. In the initial attack Raidon had dropped a primed Flashbang, and in the ensuing chaos, it went off in Roland's face.

Roland was blinded near totally by the flashbang, and suffered a serious wound to his face, as part of his glasses were propelled into his left eye by the blast. Other then this he suffered a broken nose and severe burns to his face and neck, as well as some hearing damage. Roland grew panicked upon suffering the injury, attempting to stop the burning sensation by splashing cool water on himself. Realizing he did not have long to live, Roland turned in an attempt to locate and kill Raidon, however Raidon, who had recovered considerably quicker from the flashbang (as he was mostly submerged during the blast) managed to remove Roland's Kris from his own shoulder, stabbing Roland violently in the gut with it. Roland managed to hold on for several more minutes as Raidon twisted the blade in his gut, attempting to crush Raidon in his grasp. Roland spent his last few moments struggling to keep his thoughts straight, until he eventually collapsed into the swamp. While Roland tried to keep his head above the water, Raidon retrieved his dropped gun and shot the drowning Roland in the torso. Roland eventually died in the swamp, bleeding out from his various wounds just beneath the surface, although it is unclear whether the water or his injuries ultimately killed him.

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

"You are not a meat-shield. You are a member of my fucking team, and it's my job to get you and anyone else I can home. Don't you ever say that shit again." - To Dave Morrison after he prevented Roland from rescuing Anna Chase

"Dear God. I am no monster. I did what was right, to save and to serve. I've committed a sin, but I was always set for this path. Let everyone watching know the truth. Let this sick game end. Robert deserved better than this. He was a good person, and his only failure was succumbing to this game. God, give me the strength to beat this game, to understand it, for him. For Kitty, for Isabel, even that fucker Dave. Let me be your instrument to bring him to justice, let me be the hero I was meant to be. I will save my team, and I will bury the dead. Father, Son, & Holy Spirit, Amen." - Praying over the corpse of Robert Lerger

"I'm being nice to you, because... you're human." - To Kitty Gittschall

"This is, for all intents and purposes, my war now." - To Kitty Gittschall

Other/Trivia

 * Roland choosing to name his Kris "Charlene" is a reference to the movie Full Metal Jacket.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Roland, in chronological order.

The Past:
 * A Trip to the Lake

Pre-Game:
 * Going Balls Deep

V4:


 * Mirror Mirror
 * Break Up And Break Down
 * Can't Fall Down
 * Shore Leave
 * House of the Rising Sun
 * -.-- -.-- --..
 * The Dead Flag Blues

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Roland Harte. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Roland was my favorite of Little's characters. He didn't have the flash of Jimmy or Jay, and he lacked Dutchy's ability to instantly win sympathy, but Roland more than made up for it in attitude. He decided to take down the game, and, in true V4 style, went all out, tossing aside his own morality at some points so as to improve his and his friends' chances of making it out alive and messing Danya up in the process. Roland was very, very serious. He had lighthearted moments, sure, but he did not waver in his purpose. I think it was that seriousness that made him so fascinating. By and large, Little's characters often used a whole lot of humor in their narrative. It made for effective and distinct voices, but also sometimes stripped away a bit of their presence or menace. Roland, on the other hand, was super engaged, always on the job, and that gave us a look into a fascinating psyche and proved Little a truly talented and versatile writer. - MurderWeasel